Customer visits to Taco Bell fell nearly 30% on July 18 as consumers reacted to the Cyclospora outbreak.
Shares of parent company Yum Brands dropped nearly 10% after health officials linked illnesses to shredded iceberg lettuce served at some Taco Bell restaurants.
Taco Bell responded with a one-day promotion offering its lettuce-free Enchirito for $1.
Taco Bell is trying to win back customers with a deep discount on a lettuce-free menu item after a Cyclospora outbreak dealt the fast-food chain a significant financial and reputational blow.
The company offered Enchiritos for $1 at participating restaurants on July 22, while supplies lasted. The Enchirito—seasoned beef, beans and onions wrapped in a flour tortilla and topped with red sauce and cheese—normally sells for about $4 to $5.50, depending on location.
The item contains no lettuce, making it a timely choice for the promotion. Taco Bell did not directly tie the offer to the outbreak, promoting it instead as a thank-you “for those who’ve been riding with us.”
Rewards members could also purchase regular Nacho Fries for $1 with an Enchirito order through the Taco Bell app, according to the company’s promotion terms.
Customer traffic drops sharply
The promotion followed a steep decline in business after federal health officials identified shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants as the likely source of illnesses in five states.
Visits to Taco Bell fell 18.9% on July 17 compared with the average for Fridays earlier in the year, according to location-data firm Placer.ai. Traffic was down 29.8% on Saturday, July 18, compared with the average Saturday between Jan. 1 and July 6, Reuters reported.
Taco Bell has not disclosed how much revenue it lost. However, the traffic figures suggest a substantial short-term reduction in sales at both company-operated and franchised restaurants.
The damage also reached Wall Street. Shares of Taco Bell parent Yum Brands fell from about $167 on July 7 to approximately $147 by July 17, a decline of roughly 12%. That erased billions of dollars from the company’s market value, although the stock-price loss reflects investor concerns and is not the same as a direct loss of sales or company cash.
Yum Brands also owns KFC and Pizza Hut. The company is scheduled to report its second-quarter financial results on July 30, but much of the outbreak’s impact occurred after that quarter ended.
Taco Bell removed the supplier’s lettuce
The Food and Drug Administration said 1,644 people who reported eating at Taco Bell were infected with Cyclospora in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. At least 94 people were hospitalized, and no deaths were reported.
Of 190 Michigan patients whose food choices were closely analyzed, 90% reported eating iceberg lettuce.
Taco Bell stopped using iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico nationwide and replaced the product throughout its supply chain. The company said the potentially affected lettuce was no longer being used as of July 17.
The FDA’s investigation traced the lettuce served at restaurants associated with illnesses to Taylor Farms de Mexico. The supplier subsequently removed all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the U.S. market.
However, the investigation remains complicated. The FDA initially reported finding Cyclospora in a lettuce sample but later said the test was a false positive. As of July 19, no product sample had produced a confirmed positive result. The agency said epidemiological and traceback evidence continued to implicate the recalled lettuce.
Taco Bell CEO Sean Tresvant thanked customers who continued supporting the chain and pledged that the company would prioritize safety and communicate more openly.